Fathers
by KroganVanguard
Summary: Shepard and Liara talk after she meets Aethyta for the first time. Fluff/angst. Established Shep/Liara. Please review.


_ I always found it weird you couldn't have a chat with Liara after she met Aethyta for the first time. So here's a scene of how that might have gone. Established Shep/Liara because it annoyed me having to go through the whole romance arc again._

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"So, how was it? I heard some, but not all of it." Shepard leaned against the side of the wall as he spoke, watching Liara type out a message on her terminal. She'd come straight down here after they'd left the Citadel, and buried herself in work. Not a good sign. His green eyes flicked over her face, watched her expression tighten minutely. She hung her head slightly, then turned and padded towards him. He straightened, opened his arms and folded her into a hug. The war against the Reapers, the fate of the galaxy, everything faded into the background as they held onto each other. She breathed against his shoulder. He laid a kiss on her forehead, her slightly scaly skin cool to touch.

"It...it was easy keeping it all locked away."

"You never had it all locked away, dearest. Even when we first met and I asked you about your parents, I could hear the disappointment and sadness when you mentioned your father. You needed that." Shepard's voice was gentle and his hands made circular motions on her back. She glanced up at him, gave him a small smile.

"Well, I wasn't very subtle back then." Her tone was a little wry, and she stepped back a step, out of the hug. He smiled back, brilliant green eyes locking with pale blue ones, and he steered over to the bed. They sat facing each other, fingers interlocked.

"So you knew all along? Never felt like asking Aethyta what had happened?" As ever, direct and to the point, the Shepard way. He saw little reason to dance around the issue.

"I...was afraid. Afraid she'd left because of me. Afraid she'd have wanted nothing to do with me. Then I saw the surveillance feed. The one in the vid-bank, the one you saw. I wanted to then. But then your trial, and the Mars Project happened. Things started moving very fast. I ran out of time." Her voice was raw and laced with grief. "I'm glad you pushed me to talk to her today."

"Between Jacob, Thane, Miranda and Tali, I think I've learned a little about helping people deal with their parenting issues. Especially fathers. Sometimes...sometimes, I think I'd trade it all in for another day of chucking the football around with my dad back on Mindoir. I couldn't honestly sit there and watch you throw away what might be the last chance you had to talk with yours." Liara gripped his fingers tightly for a second, then relaxed.

"It was strange, hearing her talk about mother. Benezia and I had been estranged for years. Hard to imagine her in a loving relationship." Shepard watched Liara as she visibly ghosted back through old memories, some obviously painful. "We fought, several times, mother and I. About what she was doing, what I was doing...what she wanted me to do. And then...Noveria." Liara halted. An old wound, a scar that would never heal completely. He knew about those.

"Cherish the memories that give you the most joy Liara. Its what Benezia would have wanted. Aethyta would be more than willing to share some of her own, I'm sure," Shepard said. His warm and comforting words settled over her like a blanket.

"Thank you, Joshua." Her voice was a whisper.

His eyes flicked around the room, its bare walls recalling his own. Life had thrown so much at them in the last few years. No possibility of permanence. Nothing to mark the rooms they slept in as home but for a few odds and ends like his model ship collection, or Liara's small collection of rare actual paper books. Glyph, her VI, chirped away in the background. They'd come to rely on each other, be a pillar of strength whenever possible. When circumstances didn't keep tearing them apart. Hopefully this time, they would be by each other's side till the end, and beyond, whatever that brought.

"Shepard?"

"Hmm?"

"You know what my family is like. Mother went insane, father is a krogan in an asari body and I have a half-sister who probably worships Javik. You never talk about yours. Understandably of course, but..."

"Shit. Now that's locked up. Tight." She ran her fingers through his dark brown hair, clipped military short. She loved doing that, as much as he loved tracing the patterns on her skin. The gesture soothed him, and he lay back on the bed now, staring up at the grey ceiling.

"Dad was a policeman. Mom was a teacher." His eyes misted over briefly. Memories ran freely through his head, memories he hadn't allowed out in years. Decades. Going fishing with his dad. His mom marking assignments in the front room while she made sure he did his homework. Helping his dad paint the fence. Mindoir itself, golden-brown sun that rose and fell over their small colonial town. His group of friends, raising merry hell before, after and during school. Playing football. Getting injured when tackled, and the stitches he'd had to get after. His mom, fretting over him all the while home while his dad treated him like a hero for the injury and telling him the scar would make him the envy of all the boys and attract all the girls. Liara seemed to soak in the details with a smile, which made it easier for him to wander back through some of those memories.

"Mindoir was a simple life. I never thought about joining the Alliance. Figured I'd go to a local university, become a lawyer or accountant or something. Can you imagine? Joshua Shepard, attorney-at-law." He forced a grin at that, his eyes still cloudy. She smiled back.

"I know the feeling. I was doing research for another book on Therum. Well on my way to securing tenure. Well on my way to becoming Professor T'Soni. I find it hard to picture that life now." She lay down alongside him, blue arms reaching across his chest.

"Yeah, the path not travelled...one less regret for you now that you've talked to your father I hope?"

"More than one."

"So, quarter-krogan huh? Do I have to watch out for headbutts? Occasional bouts of blood-rage? Want a varren for a pet?" His tone was light, the teasing evident. Her smile came easily in return, blue eyes sparkling.

"Hush you. All talk now, nothing to say when my father was giving us sex advice."

"Don't remind me! I was trying to block that out," came the slightly anguished reply. Shepard knew that asari customs were different, but occasionally he still ran face first into one that made him feel like a back country choir-boy. Although he sensed Aethyta was a bit different even by asari standards.

"She sent me some instructional videos to my mail. Should I just forward them to Joker? I know he'd appreciate them if anyone would."

"You really want Joker pestering you about human-asari sex? Melding? I mean even more than he does now?" He lifted one eyebrow at Liara, daring her to go through with her plan.

"Perhaps not the wisest course of action, no."

"So you and Aethyta exchanged contact details then?"

"Yes. We shall see how things go. I lost one parent. Letting the other slip through my fingers, in hindsight, would have been very foolish."

"Well, you're only 108. Young people are known to have some poor judgment." She poked his ribs in reply, rolled over to lie partially on top of him. He ran his fingers down her cheek, and raised his lips to hers for a quick kiss.

"Back to work darling. No rest for the wicked. Or me." She smiled at him over her shoulder as she walked back to her bank of screens. He watched her for a moment, drinking in the sight, then sighed. Indeed there was no rest, he had a call to make to Hackett, and then sort out the mess on Tuchanka. Victus needed to speak to him. And there were another thousand things to be done. As he walked out the door, Liara turned to him and spoke,

"Shepard. Next time we come back to the Citadel...dinner with Aethyta? The three of us?"

He smiled, and replied "Sure. Looking forward to it."


End file.
